any other world
by freedomatsea
Summary: Killian survives their encounter with Evil!Snowing and Regina fails to stop Robin and Zelena's marriage. Trapped in the world of Heroes and Villians Emma, Killian, and Henry have to find a way to survive.


"I'm sorry." Killian said quietly, stepping up beside Emma as she stared out at sea. Her eyes were fixated on a point beyond the horizon and he _knew_ she was thinking of the life she had lost.

"For what?" Emma questioned, brows knitting together in confusion as she reached out to touch his arm. He flustered, shifting his weight from his heels to the balls of his feet. While such touches felt foreign, yet welcome, he felt something, like a ghost of a memory of similar touches. But no sooner than he seemed like he was remembering them, they were gone.

"That you're trapped here now." He dropped his gaze, fingers tracing over the railing. "With a cowardly version of the man you knew. You deserve better than that."

Emma shook her head. "You're _still_ Killian. That man is still in there." She reached out and pressed her hand to his chest, fingers playing over the fabric of his shirt. "I'm not going to just give up on you because I'm stuck here. We could have something true in this life too. I saw the look on your face, you felt the connection."

He laughed shyly and nodded. "Aye. I even felt the twinge of jealousy that some other version of me knows you _very_ well."

She smirked a little, eyes alight with adoration – it was for him and not just the man she knew. "You were very brave back there." She told him, lifting her hand to touch his cheek. She was _very_ friendly in that regard. Every time they spoke she found an excuse to touch him and he loved it. He'd been treated like shit for far too long and now this gorgeous woman was fawning all over him like he was more than just some cowardly deckhand how feared the thought of almost anything.

"Was I?"

"You were. For someone who hadn't picked up a sword before today, you were pretty impressive disarming one of the black knights." She brushed her knuckles over his cheek. "See, with the proper training and assist from me, you'll be nearly up to par with... _Him_." Her hand fell away from his cheek and she turned away. "We're taking the ship far from this realm. Henry found a magic bean in Blackbeard's possessions."

"And who will Captain it?"

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "Me."

"Aye, Captain Swan." He smiled at her. "I have one question though."

"What is it?" She questioned, cocking a brow upwards.

"The lad… If you're his mother and we were together –"

Emma shook her head. "He's not yours, but the two of you had bonded quite a bit. I trusted you with his safety more than a few times." She smiled sadly. "He's more like you than his real father, I'll have you know. Commandeering that ship. Knocking out Blackbeard… all very _Killian Jones_ moves." She stepped back towards him.

"Well, he did know to find me to rescue you." Killian said. "I'm sorry for both of you then."

Emma reached out and took his hand, "Stop apologizing Killian. You have _nothing_ to apologize for. You didn't cause us to be trapped here. You're not at fault for anything." She squeezed his hand tightly. "You fought quietly bravely back there for someone who thinks himself a coward." She laughed softly. "We've just got to shake this rum allergy and we're on the fast track to getting you more like who you truly are."

"And if you _can't_. If I'm stuck as this man with no chance of being even half the man I was before?"

Emma pressed her lips together. "You're still the man I _love_."

"You loved me in this other life?"

Emma shook her head, glancing down. "I did. But he didn't know." She glanced up at him. "We'll see how this goes for _us_. This is the fourth time we've met."

He cocked a curious brow. "We've met four times? How's that, love?"

"Well, we met in the Enchanted Forest – you were pretending to be a poor, lowly, village who had been attacked by ogres." She rolled her eyes. "I ended up abandoning you on a beanstalk after a grand adventure."

"That's bad form."

" _Very_ bad form. You only held it against me once." Emma pressed her lips together. "Eventually we formed an alliance of sorts, to save Henry, and it was then that… I started to fall for you. Slowly, but then all at once. But what could have been was stopped rather abruptly by a curse that erased my memory and separated us for a year." She laughed softly. "Then you turned up in this place called New York and I thought you were a crazy person, honestly – talking about this world of people that needed me. I took the potion and remembered."

"We've had quite the life."

"I'm not done yet."

"Sometime after that there was a portal opened into the past and you followed me into it, even though I'd been acting pretty closed off with you." She canted her head to the side. "I had to seduce the former version of yourself, the suave pirate Captain who was all swagger and sex." She snorted. "I had him eating out of the palm of my hand. Then of course _you_ got jealous." She grinned up at him. "Just like you're jealous of everything I'm telling you right now."

"Is it that apparent?"

She bit down on her bottom lip and nodded. "You get red and look away." Her brows rose upwards. "It's pretty obvious." Emma smiled up at him. "I could have fallen for every version of you."

"Do you really think you could fall for _me_ though? I don't see what could possibly be appealing about someone who's spent the better years of his life on his hands and knees scrubbing imaginary specks of dirt off a pirate's ship." He pulled out his flask, "I'm even allergic to rum. Who's even allergic to rum?" He twisted off the cap of the flask and poured it over the side of the ship.

Emma crossed her arms across her chest. "See, that little flare of temper right there is the man beneath this forced exterior." She said firmly, "Give it time. I'm not expecting you to just wake up someone different. But right now we do need to set sail away from here before that dragon hauls itself out of the ocean and Snow and her cronies send her after us."

"Aye, Captain." Killian said, perhaps over eagerly. "I'll do whatever you need me to do."

Emma smirked at him, stepping towards him and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Get the ship ready to sail, I'll go get the kid and the bean." She said, her gaze lingering on his face before she headed towards the staircase that led beneath deck.

Killian couldn't help but smile to himself. She made it sound so easy for her to just accept and fall for whoever he was and it made sense to him. He'd been willing to die for her and his son and it was only by the grace of the fates that he'd survived with a small cut she'd gladly mended with rum. When she'd crashed into him in the tower he'd felt a rush he'd never felt before. Like the world made sense. Like she was the reason the sun rose in the morning and the sun set at night. She was what had been missing from his life.


End file.
